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Designersblock’s edgy experimentalism is always a magnet for international design newcomers. As they weave plans for their latest Milan show, Fiona Sibley caught up with Designersblock’s two visionaries, Piers Roberts and Rory Dodd (left), at work in their semi-derelict pub down the road…

FS: What’s your philosophy?
Piers Roberts: We just create an open platform to allow people to present their ideas. We don’t have a philosophy or an aesthetic.
Rory Dodd: We like brave people. We were trying to think of a name for the Scottish show we are taking to Milan and I was impressed by how brave they are to stay in Scotland and do things for themselves there.
Piers: Attitude is important. So is money – it is a commercial show.

Fiona: How do people get to be part of a Designersblock show?
Piers: We don’t canvas people much. It works through word of mouth.
Rory: It’s a nice and organic selection process. People come to us. They generally know why they want to do Designersblock and most we end up putting in our shows. We do chase some people if we like their stuff – that how it started with Sam & Dan and Norway Says. People like our London spaces – it’s either us or 100% Design. The difference between our exhibitors is greater and not so directly competitive.
Piers: We want people in our shows to communicate with each other. There’s an enormous loyalty around Designersblock and a huge loyalty from the audience. A lot of people choose us to launch but they also come back to do more things.
Rory: Yeah – Olav Kolti has done nearly all of them.

Fiona: As you’re active at both, do you participate in the Milan versus London debate?
Piers: There are different traditions. Milan’s is long and very fantastic.
Rory: You can’t knock Milan – 43 years and going strong.
Piers: You can say that Milan is suffering from the downturn in the German economy and increased competition from elsewhere. But it’s a more obvious career path. The British tradition has not been creatively a very encouraging environment. But you get energy and drive from that frustration and lack of opportunity and having to do things for yourself.
Rory: London definitely has the capacity and the competency to justify the hype. But the industry needs more weight behind it. The London Design Festival is a brilliant start. We are totally convinced that if you put good design in front of the public they respond well to it. We used to get away with murder with the things we sold in our ?Brick Lane shop. People would buy the strangest things because they were good – and they understood it.
Piers: There are lots of cities across the world that want to stage big creative weeks now. Milan is like Cannes – it’s traditionally where the concepts are coming from.
Rory: Also the debate is far more sophisticated there. Milan’s design press is unrivalled and people think about things in a much better way. It’s the best place to make an impact. If you’re bold in Milan you are going to get noticed, particularly now as less money is being spent by the companies who used to put on lavish presentations. It’s probably still the best window to be seen through.
Piers: The important thing is that we understand the mindset of the people doing the shows themselves – we are very typical of a developing creative business, fighting against the same problems. That’s why are shows are linked to advice and training. We offer a shoulder in a real environment. We have analysed how creative businesses develop and came up with Risk It so that we are in a position to advise people.

Fiona: What excites you both at the moment?
Rory: Not London – that’s exciting. The whole area around the north-west of England – Liverpool, Manchester – is growing.
Piers: Preston in particular really gets what we are talking about with Risk It, our model for understanding how creative businesses develop. They have only just become a city and the regeneration initiatives are really well devised. We are looking forward to working more with them.
Rory: I’m really exciting about taking the Scottish show of 10 people to Milan. We want more people with an ambition to do things themselves. We’ve ordered our kilts.

Designersblock Milan 2004 is at Via Friuli, South East Milan. Nearest station: Lodi from April 13-19. The party – April 15.

www.designersblock.org.uk

February 2004

* 저자 / 출처 : ?HiddenArt http://www.hiddenart.com/news/interviews/designersblock